Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Hail to the Victors -- and Lloyd Carr

Wow. That was the best performance I have seen out of Michigan in years... certainly in the last four years of this Michigan senior class that had gone winless against Ohio State and in bowl games.

What a brilliantly coached -- and executed -- game by Michigan. (I can only imagine Michigan fans celebrating, but wondering: Where was that fearlessness all year?)

The image of Lloyd Carr on his players' shoulders will linger well into the Rich Rodriguez Era. Sincerest congratulations to Michigan on a hell of a win in a hell of a game.

(Yes, it's worth revising my prediction from as recently as last week that Florida will either start next season at No. 1... or finish it that way. They will be a contender -- the bitter memory of this loss will fuel plenty of off-season workouts -- but it's a loaded field at the top.)

11 comments:

SEC SPEED!! SEC SPEED!! SEC SPEED!!! You, Dan, are going to get killed on here and rightfully so. You DESTROYED the Big 10 & Michigan in particular when they lost to App. State. Well how does it feel to lose to the team, who lost to a 1-AA team? Can we use the transitive property here? You know the one that goes a little something like this:

You and all the other SEC elitists cannot, or will not, grasp the fact that there are great and fast players everywhere. In the games played since the introduction of the BCS the Big 10 & SEC have played 24 games against one another. The record in those games you ask? 12-12. Just like last year when UF pounded OSU you conveniently ignored how the Big 10was 2-1 against the SEC overall in bowl games. All the better to make the argument how Big 10 football was somehow second rate. Well, guess what. As UM showed today they have athletes and can play in the Big 10 as well.

As I said before there are great and fast athletes everywhere. As soon as the SEC (and in your case, over-the-top Gator) apologists realize the facts back this up, then perhaps you will all be a little less smug when running down the thick-ankled and slow twitch Big 10.

Yes, I graduated from a Big 10 school (Penn State) and loathe all things Michigan. However, today I was singing Hail To The Victors if for no other reason then to shut up the SEC apologists for one day. Maybe OSU gets killed by LSU, but it won't be because of SEC speed. It will be because they got outplayed.

BTW, how did Arkansas do against those plodders from Missouri? For the sake of everyone in the south let's hope Hawaii doesn't hand it to Georgia tonight or there will be nowhere to run with your "No one can play with the SEC boys" argument for at least a few days.

This post is insanely long and I'm sorry for that. I respect the SEC and will always say they play great football in that conference. It would just be nice to hear an SEC fan give other conferences (in particular the Big 10) the same consideration.

*sigh* I must renew my argument that a USC/Georgia bowl game would have been awesome. UGA could still blow it at this point (halftime), but I think the matchup against USC could have potentially been the best of the bowl season. OSU/LSU had better knock my damn socks off.

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.